Archive for March 2006
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Thursday 30th March 2006
Fan Letter of the Week: “Thy Name is Cowardice”
9:45 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Torture | Comments: 8
Email Subject line:Â James Bovard, thy name is Cowardice
“Five to seven million Iraqis disappeared, the majority of them Shiites.” - National Geographicmagazine, June 2004, page 28More to the point, WHO is doing the majority of the killing of Iraqi civilians?(HINT: It is NOT Americans. Can you say “Suicide Bombers”? Or how about “Islamofascist Hit Squads”?)Here [...]
Wednesday 29th March 2006
Washington Times Publishes my Response
9:05 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | wool | Comments: 4
Letters to the editor
March 29, 2006
    I appreciate The Washington Times printing a review of my new book, “Attention Deficit Democracy” (”Finding American voters wanting?” Books, Sunday). The reviewer states that “what Mr. Bovard leaves out is that these Founding fathers were suspicious of untrammelled democracy itself.”
    I am perplexed by this comment, since the book is [...]
Tuesday 28th March 2006
Bummer! I have Lost My Best Source!
9:07 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Uncategorized | Comments: 15
Now I know how General Robert E. Lee felt in 1864 when informed of the death of his calvary leader, Gen. Jeb Stuart.  Lee responded that he had “lost the eyes of the army.” (The previous year, when informed of the death of Stonewall Jackson, Lee said that he had lost his right arm.)
Well, that’s [...]
Monday 27th March 2006
Orange County Register: “Defining Freedom Down”
3:03 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Elective Dictatorship | Rule of Law | Uncategorized | Comments: 2
The Orange County Register ran my op-ed, “Defining Freedom Down.” The page does not have a link, so I am posting the piece here.
The Future of Freedom Foundation today shotgunned out an op-ed of mine that is very similar to this article. Â
Orange County Register, March 17, 2006
“Defining Freedom Down”
by James Bovard
President Bush exploits the word [...]
Sunday 26th March 2006
Washington Times heats up Attention Deficit Democracy
12:04 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Elective Dictatorship | Comments: 14
The Washington Times today pronounced me guilty of the “character assassination” of George W. Bush.
A “bombthrower”? Me?
“Smearing”?  Moi?
The Washington Times’s editorial page editor, Tony Blankley, is renown for advocating reviving and vigorously enforcing laws against sedition….
Friday 24th March 2006
Bush Betrayal now available in Arabic in Beirut
7:52 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Uncategorized | Comments: 2
I got a call today from a friend who told me that the Arabic version of Bush Betrayal is now in the stores in Beirut. The translation deal was signed by St. Martin’s Press last May with the Arabic Scientific Publishers in Lebanon. Â
I have not seen the translated book - or even the cover design.  [...]
Fan Mail of the Week
12:54 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Comments: 7
Aaron Zelman at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership kindly forwarded me an email he received in response to the interview he did with me back in January on Attention Deficit Democracy. Following is the text of the email - the italicized part is from the email Aaron sent out about the interview:
Interview with James [...]
Tuesday 21st March 2006
My Cheney Tribute is now online
2:42 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Cheney | Rule of Law | Surveillance | Wiretapping | wool | Comments: 6
The American Conservative has posted my piece on Cheney’s revelation that he is exempt from federal law regarding national security secrets. Here are a few paragraphs from the piece:
The “my wish is the law’s command� attitude towards disclosure and secrecy has permeated the Bush administration. From shortly after 9/11, the Bush team sought to drop an [...]
Monday 20th March 2006
I’m speaking Wednesday (3/22) in Washington
9:35 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 6
The Liberty Coalition has kindly invited me to talk about Attention Deficit Democracy on Wednesday evening (3/22). They will be meeting at the at Skewers Restaurant, near Dupont Circle. If you are going to attend, please RSVP to Michael Ostrolenk, the national director of the Liberty Coalition. Here are the details -Liberty Coalition presents: A Transpartisan [...]
Friday 17th March 2006
The Patriot Act & Attention Deficit Democracy
1:13 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Patriot Act | Comments: 7
The Future of Freedom Foundation is distributing an op-ed I wrote on the Patriot Act renewal. The article is also now online at the Southwest News Herald. Some other newspapers may pick up the piece in the coming days.
I stretched so far to reach an upbeat ending that I may have strained my right hamstring [...]
Tuesday 14th March 2006
Thanks to Laissez Faire Books!
7:49 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 0
Laissez Faire Books designated Attention Deficit Democracy as the winner of the March 2006 Lysander Spooner Award for Advancing the Literature of Liberty.
I greatly appreciate the award and all the fine work that LFB has done to advance liberty for so many years. Laissez Faire has consistently had the finest collection of books on liberty, year after year. [...]
Monday 13th March 2006
“Misunderstandings” Bush appointee style
10:48 pm | Bovard | wool | Comments: 7
Here’s an update on the bust of the Bush abstinence education mastermind. Â
The lawyer for Bush’s former top domestic policy advisor, Claude Allen, told a Maryland court that this case was simply “misunderstandings.”
“Misunderstandings?”Â
Tuesday’s Washington Post notes: “Police said they have been able to document 25 instances in which Allen tried to obtain refunds for items he was seen picking [...]
Sunday 12th March 2006
American Conservative prints my hit on Lawless Dick Cheney
8:29 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Bovard | Cheney | Surveillance | dictatorship | Comments: 0
The new issue of American Conservative (3/27/06) contains my hit on Cheney’s latest lawlessness.  Here is the first paragraph:
“The biggest surprise from the shooting of Harry Worthington was Dick Cheney’s announcement that he is entitled to declassify national security secrets. Such declassifications raise the question of whether the president and vice president possess unlimited discretion to [...]
A Liberal Reviews Bush Betrayal
5:45 pm | Bovard | Bush Betrayal | Justice Department | dictatorship | Comments: 3
The Aging Hipster recently read Bush Betrayal. I’m happy he made it through the book and took the time to put his thoughts on his blog.   He gave me permission to repost it - so here it is.  The Aging Hipster is a self-described “Georgia Mountain Man” and Pittsburgh Steelers fan.  Both those factors mean that, unlike some white-gloved [...]
Saturday 11th March 2006
Needed: Abstinence Education for Politicians
2:37 pm | Bovard | Comments: 13
So I notice on the front page of my local paper this morning that Claude Allen, formerly Bush’s top domestic policy advisor, got busted for defrauding a Target store with thousands of dollars of phony returns. Allen may have been best known for his advocacy of increased federal funding for abstinence education for school children - [...]
Friday 10th March 2006
The Regime Crimes Office
9:09 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Justice Department | lese majeste | Comments: 7
As part of my penance for Lent, I was reading a recent budget briefing for the State Department, tottering on the edge of my chair with each gust of hot air. I came across an intriguing comment by Ambassador James Jeffrey, “the Senior Advisor to the Secretary and Coordinator for Iraq.” He chirped about the Bush [...]
Thursday 9th March 2006
A Great Quote to Ponder
4:42 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 5
I came across a quote from the great historian Raul Hilberg today, illustrating how the Rule of Law can degenerate into tyranny:
As the Nazi regime developed over the years, the whole structure of decision-making was changed. At first there were laws. Then there were decrees implementing laws. Then a law was made saying, “There shall [...]
Wednesday 8th March 2006
National Security Agency spying piece now online + Update
9:40 am | Congress | Surveillance | Wiretapping | Comments: 2
My review on James Risen’s A State of War is now online at American Conservative.
The spying scandal continues to show Washington at its best. Yesterday, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to support a legislative reform to the FISA law to legalize Bush’s actions.
One key change:Â Â Feds would be allowed to wiretap Americans’ phones [...]
Tuesday 7th March 2006
Not Bush’s Fault
11:04 am | wool | Comments: 8
I am sometimes criticized for being excessively harsh on George W. Bush.
I want to take this opportunity to make it clear that I don’t blame the president for everything.
This Arizona abuse apparently has nothing to do with the White House or the war on terrorism. Except unless that local fire department received a grant from [...]
Live Link to Radio Show Today - 1 p.m. - Gardner Goldsmith, New Hampshire radio
9:02 am | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 0
I will be on the Gardner Goldsmith show today (Tuesday) at 1 p.m.  You can listen live, or dial in to WNTK and affiliates in the New Hampshire/New England area.
Gardner is a hardliner radio host, gung-ho on promoting freedom and alerting people to the perils of politicians of all stripes and scents. We will be [...]
Monday 6th March 2006
FFF uncorks my piece on the Federal Farming Takeover
9:09 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Uncategorized | Comments: 0
The Future of Freedom Foundation posted online my Freedom Daily article on FDR’s takeover of American agriculture. The piece is re-posted today at LewRockwell.com. Here’s an outtake:
The history of agricultural policy is a history of endless political finagling, of bureaucracies that always lagged behind the pace of events, of policymakers’ appalling misperceptions that repeatedly destroyed [...]
Sunday 5th March 2006
Albanian Backlash against the book begins
6:55 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Uncategorized | Comments: 6
The Albanian Anti-Defamation League has launched its first attack on Attention Deficit Democracy. A woman who calls herself Kristina Albania - and who confesses that her nickname is “blerta” - angrily attacked the book yesterday in a “customer” (fat chance) review on Amazon.Â
From the Amazon page for Attention Deficit Democracy - Â
Title of Customer Review: [...]
Another Brazilian Hit and a Portuguese language review
3:23 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Uncategorized | Comments: 0
My piece on the absurd definitions of the “suspected terrorists,” published last month in the Los Angeles Times, was translated and published by Jornal O Estado de Sno Paulo, one of Brazil’s largest newspapers. It was posted online by a Brazilian business lobby here. Â
The generous review essay published by Counterpunch was translated into Portuguese and [...]
Wednesday 1st March 2006
Reason magazine runs my hit on TSA Killers & Apologists
4:46 pm | Attention Deficit Democracy | Comments: 0
The March issue of Reason contains my piece on the servile media coverage of the TSA’s killing of an airline passenger in Miami. The feds falsely claimed that Rigoberto Alpizar had run down the aisle of the plane shouting about having a bomb before G-men plugged him.
Unfortunately, the media has almost completely ignored this story [...]